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E3 2010: Our predictions

Here, in handy bullet point form, are our collective predictions for the most and least likely news to come out of this year's E3 conference. Feel free to print this page, tack it to a wall, and keep track of our hits and misses during the week.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Jeff Bakalar Editor at Large
Jeff is CNET Editor at Large and a host for CNET video. He's regularly featured on CBS and CBSN. He founded the site's longest-running podcast, The 404 Show, which ran for 10 years. He's currently featured on Giant Bomb's Giant Beastcast podcast and has an unhealthy obsession with ice hockey and pinball.
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Scott Stein Editor at Large
I started with CNET reviewing laptops in 2009. Now I explore wearable tech, VR/AR, tablets, gaming and future/emerging trends in our changing world. Other obsessions include magic, immersive theater, puzzles, board games, cooking, improv and the New York Jets. My background includes an MFA in theater which I apply to thinking about immersive experiences of the future.
Expertise VR and AR, gaming, metaverse technologies, wearable tech, tablets Credentials
  • Nearly 20 years writing about tech, and over a decade reviewing wearable tech, VR, and AR products and apps
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Dan Ackerman
Jeff Bakalar
Scott Stein
2 min read
Watch this: preGAME 17: E3 2010 preview

Reading the tea leaves of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expois a bit like handicapping a Steve Jobs keynote. There are some things so reliably leaked or telegraphed they're virtually sure bets, whereas other announcements are so out of left field you'd never see them coming (to say nothing of the occasional highly expected software or hardware news that goes MIA).

Here, in handy bullet point form, are our collective predictions for the most and least likely news to come out of this year's E3 conference. Feel free to print this page, tack it to a wall, and keep track of our hits and misses during the week.

Sure bet, take it to the bank!

  • Microsoft's Project Natal named/priced/bundled
  • PlayStation Move price, date, launch titles announced
  • Rock Band 3 focuses on its new "keyboard" instrument
  • Additional premium video partners for Xbox Live/PSN
  • PS3 3D firmware confirmed/dated, with Killzone 3D demo
  • New "3D" version of the Nintendo DS
More likely than not
  • "Slim" version of the Xbox 360
  • Nintendo details the not-seen-since-last-year Vitality Sensor along with a "de-stressing" game
  • Gyroscope-enabled iPhone 4 games announced
  • Xbox Live/Windows Phone 7 integration
  • Annual subscription for premium PlayStation Network access
  • Next Half-Life episode gets a simultaneous Mac OS X release
  • New Nintendo Wiimotes build in MotionPlus hardware
  • Hulu comes to Xbox Live

We'll throw in one final category, for ideas and products we think it would be cool to see, but that we have no basis in fact or even trustworthy rumor to expect. Think of these as our out-of-left-field musings, and please, don't count them against us while scoring the predictions above.

Wishful thinking

  • Multiplatform iPhone/Android games announced
  • Nintendo Miis make their way to the DS platform
  • Nintendo revamps online plan, ditches Friend Codes
  • Fictional Sony VP Kevin Butler emcees the PlayStation press conference
  • Nintendo 3DS works as a 3D camera or augmented reality device
  • Nintendo's DSiWare adds huge downloadable GameBoy library
  • Microsoft announces a 3D workaround (perhaps using Natal)
  • Xbox Facebook app upgraded to play games like FarmVille

There you have it, our educated predictions--and some hopeful wishes--for what video game news will break at the annual E3 show. Check back next week to see how on-the-money we were, or just to marvel at our prescience.

In the meantime: what do you think will--and won't--be revealed next week in Los Angeles? Share your predictions below.